Resident Evil: Red's Warning
by Konoha-Crash
Summary: A year and a half after the incident with Saddler, Red is again forced to confront a horrific viral threat, discover the Umbrella copycat behind it, and learn the identity of the shadow stalking her...But she's not facing evil alone...
1. Biohazard?

Resident Evil: Red's Warning

WARNING: Before ya read this one, try reading the previous fic "Red's Alert", it explains a bit more about the character!

* * *

A maddeningly hot day in June, a single figure hurried down a side street, her destination a looming grey office building not far ahead. Hidden down the sidestreet, it was an often overlooked building, but with its purpose in mind, the building was perfect. Secret. She picked up her pace, panicing at the fact she was several minuites late already, her heeled shoes tapped out a rythym on the cool concrete paving as she scurried along. Sunlight glinted off the buildings glass windows as she strode towards it, and she stopped momentarily, raising a hand to protect her eyes.

After a second to let her vision adjust, she started to move again, then stopped. Something was hiding in the shadows. She squinted at it, it looked like a human figure. But by now it knew she had seen it, and whoever it was ducked out of sight, but not before she'd caught a glimpse of blonde hair, and sunglasses...

"HEY!" she dashed towards where she'd seen him, but by the time she reached the spot, the figure was long gone. She stood there, frowning, wondering if the summer heat was messing with her mind. Eventually, with the realisation that she was gonna be late for work, she hurried into the building.

Her aim was to get to her desk before she got spotted and told off-

"Yanmark! Finally decide to show up I see."

She groaned, turning to face her fellow officer, Colonel Lance Schneider. Part German, part british, he was a brilliant officer, but with a bad habit of treating people with an unusually large amount of arrogance.

"Good morning to you too Colonel" she answered snappily, annoyed at being rumbled. Lance just smirked slightly, knowing he'd annoyed her, but he wasnt done yet. "That chopper you've been fussing over is finished," he added calmly, "they applied the final coat of paint this morning, its ready to go."

Yanmark, or as her full name was, Leiutenant Rachel Yanmark, grinned happily. She'd been overseeing the chopper construction since the beguinning, otufitting it with the best weapons she'd developed. The end result was two machine gun turrets, with teflon-coated bullets, and a rocket launcher on its underside. RRA0015, the replacement for its predecessor 0014.

Thinking about 0014 made Rachel fall silent, as she drifted off into a memory from only a year and a half ago...

RRA0014 had gone missing, and she'd gone to look for it on her own, assuming the simple spanish town it had landed in wasn't going to be a danger. How wrong she'd been. What had followed had been a hellish nightmare, filled with paracites, explosions, and geneticly enhanced mutants.

But she hadn't been alone for long. Not long after she'd arrived there she'd run into an american special agent called Leon Kennedy. She smiled, remembering the brief partnership, and the amount of times he'd saved her ass. Plus the girl he'd been out to rescue, she recalled her too, Ashley Graham, the Presidents Daughter. And a strange woman in a red dress, Ada.

"-Lieutenant!!" Lance's sharp voice interrupted her thoughts, and she was forcefully pulled back to the present. Lance was frowning at her. He'd noticed she'd been acting strange since she'd come back from that mission, when she'd brought the news of the two pilots deaths. She had been pretty badly hurt, and was taken off work for two months to recover from the psycholiogical shock of the horrendous mission. The things she'd described in her report sounded so far-fetched as to bealmost fanciful. The only bit that had sounded beleivable was the details abut the "Illuminados" cult.

"Sorry..." she muttered almost sulkily. They walked the rest of the way down to the aircraft hanger in silence, Red too annoyed at Lance to bother talking to him, and Lance simply couldn't be bothered to drag the reason for her silence out of her.

But she soon cheered up once they entered the hangar, and qickly forgot her annoyance at the Colonel. In front of them, its new paintwork gleaming in the light, was the new chopper.

"She's lovely!" Rachel smiled, scooting over to get a look at her, checking the gun turrets, and even peering under it to see the rocket launcher.

"Wonderful isn't she Lieutenant?" Standing back up she came face-to-face with the technitian in chrage of building it. She smiled "it's as perfect as i had hoped, has anyone signed it yet?" This was a running joke in the department. "Signing" the choppers generally involved one of the staff sticking their hand in a bucket of paint and leaving a conspicious hand-print somewhere on the fuselage. Then fingerpainting their name underneath. And somehow, despite this going on for years, the superiors had never remarked about this wierd ritual.

"No, as it happens i waiting for you to come down," he held up a bucket of black paint, which would stand out cearly against the choppers red coat. Rachel's grin widened, and Lance could only sigh in annoyance as she proceeded to leave a glaring handprint right by the cockpit window, followed by her Initials.

Yanmark and the tech stood there chuckling at this latest "signing", until Lance finally told Yanmark she DID have work to do and she'd better get her ass in in gear. Rachel reluctantly left the hangar, stopping at the bathroom en rotue to the office to wash the paint off.

Seeing the latest Chopper, or Roflcopter as she jokingly called them, made her smile. Next to weapons, she loved the choppers, and indeed often spent a lot of her spare time eitehr cleaning them or fixing them.

Even this long after it had happened, their investigation into the missing viral speciments that unknown intruders had stolen from the lab was still going on. But so far nothing new in regards to who was responsible had surfaced. Until now.

Rachel didnt get time to settle down to her paperwork, for barely had she and Lance made it to the offices, theirs were next to each other of all the luck, then a junior officer came tearing up to them.

"Lieutenant, Colonel..chief wants to see you right now, he said its urgent!"

Lance and Rachel looked at each other, then just shrugged, and set off towards the chiefs office.

* * *

"Reports of a strange outbreak of an unknown virus have been reported around this area...symptoms match no previously known diesease, but similarities to the mutations we noted in our research have surfaced...so far theres only been 5 cases reported, none fatal, but we need to investifgate before it spreads.." "The first reported cases were a pair of kids, Casey and Mick Powell, their mother told the hospital they said they'd been playing around this warehouse here-" He indicated a spot of the map. "Not long after they came home, they began displaying the first symptoms. Anyone who's been near that warehouse could also have picked it up, so we need to seal it off, fast. Primary analysis tends to lean towards the "virus" being spread by blood transmission, such as it infecting an already open cut or wound."

"We've contacted the U.S. Army, and they'll send an agent to meet us at the drop point. Colonel Schneider, yourself and the Lieutenant here will be going on your own. Once you've established what's going on, and if the situation warrants it, a bio-warfare team will be sent out."

The chief indicated a point on the map, and Rachel got a cold feeling of dread in her stomach. This all sounded horribly familiar, a mysterious outbreak? Symptoms that matched the ones that had lured the 0014's pilots to their deaths.

And the spot the chief was indicating was worryingly near a public sector, how could a virus have just sprung up like that? Unless someone released it. She frowned, they'd killed Saddler, destroyed his island, but that woman had escaped with the specimen..could she have done this?

Lance nodded, accepting this deployment calmly, but Rachel was surprised. As a gun expert, it was rare she ventured outside the labs. Unless she had been specificly requested.

But she didn't get time to question the order, for dispatch was immediate, they had a brief amount of time to get equipped for the misison and move out.

* * *

In the locker room, Rachel tugged on an almost all-black uniform, with the exception to this monotone disguise being her trademark red vest. She'd had the new one toughened, after how easily the previous one had been torn apart. The newer one, though a fair bit heavier then standard, would hopefully prevent any more near-death accidents. Ones involving bullets anyway. The red vest brought back memories of the nickname Leon had given her..."Red", or "Ballistics Basket-case"...all that seemed like such a distant memory, but one she frequently thought about, when Lance didn't interupt of course. This done, she grabbed her weapons bag, and tore down to where the new chopper sat ready and waiting. She dived into the cockpit, noting Lance was already sat there, no doubt had been for 10 minuites. It had always baffled her how he could have beaten her there, but she didnt bother asking.

Throughout the whole chopper ride to the drop point, the feeling of uneasiness continued to grow. She tried ignoring it, but something just didn't feel right. She glanced down at the papers in her lap. The symptoms had been described as a fever first, then severe vomiting, sometimes of blood, after that, then a strange, mutated rash would appear all over the victims body, causing a lot of pain. SO far it hadnt caused any fatalities, but at the same time, none of the victims had shown any improvement.

--Is it possible it's a delayed virus? Waits a few days after infection before slowly killing off the hosts body?--

"ETA 5 minuites..." Lance interrupted her thinking again. She just nodded, wishing her co-worker would shut up when she was trying to think about something. He was so...abrupt. Rude too.

But at last the drop-point came into view, and the Colonel began the slow, careful descent to the ground.

* * *

The "American agent" they'd been told about was waiting at the point. And had been for 20 minuites. The figure sighed, wondering what was keeping the people that had been sent to investigate. But no sooner had he thought this, then he heard the sound of chopper blades, and a shadow fell over the area as the chopper moved in to descend. He squinted in the bright light as it touched down, then the door was flung open, and a guy jumped out, then turned to assist his female co-worker out of the chopper.

The agent stared at the woman as she stepped onto the ground, and kept on staring. NO way..

"Rachel?"

* * *

At the sound of her name, Rachel finally looked up to see the agent that had been sent to meet them. And couldn't beleive her eyes. One second she was just standing there, the next she ran over and glomped the agent. "LEON!!"

They stood there, grinning at each other. Lance stared, twitching slightly. How did the Leiutenant know this guy?

Leon smiled, shaking his head slightly, he couldn't beleive it was her. Sure he'd known the U.S. forces had drafted in an outside military group, but he hadn't expected it to be this one. Or for one of the two sent to be Rachel Yanmark, who he'd met at the start of his mission, and hadnt seen since it had ended.

"Still got your red-jacket i see.." Red smiled at this comment. "Of course, its my trademark" she chuckled, and they smiled again.

Annoyed at being ignored, Lance decided it would be best to butt in.

"Forgive my intteruption, but who are you?" he asked bluntly.

Leon gave him an annoyed look, before answering "Leon Kennedy, US Special Forces, and you are..?"

Lance gave him another narky look, "Colonel Lance Schneider, and i take it you already know Leiutenant Rachel Yanmark here.."

Red nodded, "that he does, now lets get going." She added, before Lance could stick his nose in any further. She could tell Scheneider didn't like Leon already, but wondered why? Then decided it was just Lance's huge ego surfacing again.

* * *

"So how's Ashley?" "Oh she's fine, she still asks if i've seen you at all..."

Red smiled "I'll have to go visit next time i get a vacation, once this incident is over. She looked at him "You heard about the virus right?"

Leon nodded "Sounds pretty weird, almost like someone deliberatly let it loose. But Umbrella's gone, so that seems ridiculous.."

Rachel Just shrugged, she didn't understand it either, it was all so baffling. She'd done plenty of research on Umbrella, read all the details about the Raccoon City incident.

--All those people, blown up by a single missle strike, thousands killed, all because Umbrella couldnt control their virus..--

Soon they were standing in front of the aforementioned warehouse. Despite being known as "abandoned" it looked quite new, like it had been built within the last year or so. There was no indentifing marks on it, no slogan from the company that had once used it. The main door was locked, and refused to budge.

"Who owns it?" Lance quesioned, looking at Leon. But the blonde just shrugged "that's what we need to find out, the searches turned up no new details."

"Oh great..." Lance muttered under his breath "someone else who doesn't know whats going on."

Rachel glared at him, clopped him over the head with one hand, then stalked off to find a way in. Leon couldn't help snickering at the other officers pissed expression.

--One things for sure, she hasn't changed-- he thought.

But before Lance could get any further in bugging Leon for info, they heard Rachel shout. They ran round to the left side of the warehouse, where she was crouched by what looked like an opening. Evidently the kids in the report, or perhaps a bunch of hooligans, had kicked part of the corregated iron wall in and used it as a method to breaking and entering.

Red looked at the both of them, a look that simply asked "Go in or not?". At last they decided it might be worth checking out the inside, check there werent any more kids in there, althought that seemed unlikely since it had been cordoned off.

And with that, the three military personnel squeezed through the hole, emerging inside the cold, dark warehouse...

Had they looked over thier shoulders beore entering, they wouldve seen a strange figure, half-hidden in shadows, watching them. Sunlight glinting off black sunglasses...and a smirk on his face.


	2. Fatal Injection

The warehouse was VERY dark, and freezing cold into the bargain. Rachel shivered "geez, its icy.." 

Lance just stared around at the vast expanse of the warehouse "it doesnt make sense...why would a company just up a leave a warehouse like this? NO alarms, no guard, nothing..."

Switching his flashlight on, Leon crept ahead into the darkness "that's what were here to find out isn't it?"

Lance and Rach just shrugged at each other and, pulling out flashlights of their own, split off in different directions.

All that seemed to be in the warehouse was boxes, boxes, and even MORE boxes. Lance, getting more and more irrated by the second, gave one of the boxes a swift kick. And hopped back a second later cursing in his native language.

Hearing a whole stream of german profanity, Rachel and Leon beetled over to where Lance was. The officer was giving the box the evil glare of death he usually reserved for Yanmark whenever she called him "blondie".

Yup. The same annoying name she'd given Leon. But, in contrast to the american, Lance's hair color seemed almost whitish blonde, always tied back so it wasnt in his face, the pale shade making the deep blue of his eyes stand out even more. But sadly his somewhat arrogant nature clashed with this look, making him one of those handsome-but-a-jackass types.

Rachel sniggered at his expression, then poked the box he had kicked. It was solid, and wouldnt budge. Frowning she concentrated on trying to open it, while listening to Lance's continuing stream of swearing, occansionally interrupted by an english curseword.

Seeing her struggling, Leon crouched down by her, and they both stared at the box. It wouldnt open. Then Leon noticed, disguised as a packaging label, a keypad of sorts. And no clue as to the combination.

"Will it open or not?" Lance finally switched back to english to ask.

Leon shrugged "it will if we can find out HOW to open it...maybe we need to have a look around..?"

Lance turned and walked off without another word, leaving them behind.

Leon waited until he was out of earshot before speaking. "Bit cold isnt he?" he asked Rachel.

She sighed wearily "try working with him every day, he can be such a prat..." she shrugged "from what i know, his parents were both military, so he was brought up to be a soldier. It'll be a cold day in hell before anyone ever gets that moody git to smile." She wrapped up the decsription with another shrug. "in short; he's a stroppy git."

Leon snickered "got it in a nutshell. He's been glaring at me ever since i got here.."

Red laughed, shaking her head a little, "don't mind him, he does that with EVERYONE he doesn't like, which is practically everyone. Just ignore him, he'll calm down after a bit..."

* * *

Right at the back of the warehouse there was a set of steps, which led up to an office room near the cieling of the building. Evidently an overseers office or something. The door was locked, but the colonel gave it a few good shoulder slams and it finally busted open.

Inside, it was a mess, and sprawled amidst a pile of papers, was a dead body, a gunshot mark in its head, its eyes open in terror, as if had seen the face of its killer.

Lance carefully knelt down by the dead worker, noting a badge on his jacket.

"S Corp? What the hell...?"

* * *

Unknown to Colonel Schneider, he was being watched, by the same unknown man that had watched them sneak into the warehouse.  
Cold eyes gleamed behind dark glasses, a cold smile on his face as he watched the officer peering at the dead body.

Yes, he'd make a suitable test subject. If his guess about the officers nationality was right, it would bond with him even easier. He had thought about using the female, the one who'd seen him briefly by the RRA building. But somehow he had a feeling the male would be better.

Now to sit back and wait for them to come to him, at the place where he was going to capture the precious subject.

* * *

Going through all the papers, Lance suddenly felt cold, like somethign was wrong. He looked up, glancing out the window of the office, but there was nothing there...

Sighing irratably at his own foolishness, he continued his search through the papers. Finally one turned up that looked like it might prove useful. It looked like a memo, but it was all crumpled up, and covered in specks of blood. He squinted at it, reading out a Combination of sorts:

"4UMBR3114"

He ran out of the room, heading back to where he'd left Leon and Rachel.

* * *

The figure smirked as it seen Lance finally pick up the paper it had left there.

"Good boy, now go fetch your little friends..."

* * *

Both Leon and Rachel were glad to see the combo Lance had found. Hopefully it would work on the box.

Red knelt by the thing, and punched in the letters and numbers Lance read out. As she entered the last one, there was a muted click, and the flaps of the box unfolded. Inside was a control panel. With another code-lock. Red groaned, what kind of computer WAS this? Why was it there? This was endless. Unless...

With a pair of pliers and a screwdriver, she managed to take of a panel just to the side of the keypad. And got instantly confused, wiring was NOT her specialty. She'd been hoping to find an override button. With a sigh, Lance nudged her out the way, and set to work fiddling with the wires.

Just as Leon was about to suggest they go LOOK for the code, there was a loud beep, and the red light on the panel flipped to green, and from the other end of the warehouse, there was the sound of something moving. All three dashed over to the sound of the noise, and stared at what they saw.

A trapdoor, leading down into what seemed to be a tunnel.

Wihtout question, the three jumped in. It was pitch black, but not as narrow as Rachel has suspected, it fact it was easy to walk without having to crouch down like you would with a normal tunnel. Something told this WASN'T a maintenance shaft.

The silence was broken only by the sounds of their footsteps, and once, Leons stomach growling. But after 10 minuties of walking along the dark, cold tunnel, they heard a faint noise. It grew louder and louder as they walked onwards.

"A Generator?" Lance guessed, Rach shrugged, possibly it was, but where in hell did this tunnel lead to?

At last the tunnel came to an end, and a ladder leading up, and into where, they didn't know.

* * *

They emerged in what looked like an old storeroom, more boxes were piled everywhere, but some, Rachel noticed, had a "Biohazard" symbol on them. Which was NEVER a good thing. In the corner an electric generator hummed away, confirming Lance's suspicions.

They split up to search for a door, wandering amongst shelves of boxes and what looked like medical supplies. There was a strange smell in the air, almost like rotten meat, only different, more pungent.

Rachel clamped her hand over her mouth as she walked between the tall shelves. And just about jumped out of her skin when she heard a box clatter to the floor. She whipped round, expecting to see Lance or Leon behind her. Sadly not. What she did see made her stand there with a look of horror on her face.

It was human, at least in appearence. But its body was covered in a disfiguring rash, making its skin look like melted wax. It's features were slanted halfway off its face, and its eyes had that same look she recognised from the villagers. It stared at her as it crouched on the ground, then abruptly sprang, knocking her to the floor, its hands clamping down on her shoulders, its wide maw extending to take a chunk from her neck.

BANG.

The things grip suddnely slacked, and with another bang, it released its hold and fell still. Rachel backed up, shoving the things body off her, glancing up and feeling relief to see it WAS Lance this time. The colonel lowered the SIG-Sauer, then kicked the thing with one boot.

"What IS it? It's disgusting..." he muttered.

Rachel blinked, finally coming back to reality.

"I have NO idea..." she managed shakily. She sat and stared at it, at the melted appearence of its skin, those eyes, and that rotten stench...

"Whats going on? I heard gunshots and-what the fuck is that?" all this was from Leon, whod just come to see what the noise was.

"No idea." Was all Rachel could say, as she got to her feet and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. This was like, almost like...

"Raccoon city all over again.." Leon muttered, then turned and left to carry on looking for a door. Lance frowned, Raccoon City? what was the american on about? How did HE know?

Door found, they emerged out into a long stretch of hallway, harsh white strip lighting making the place seem cold and sterile, almost like a laboratory. Somewhere in this building, there had to be some answers. But what if there were more of those things?

They walked quietly down the hall, there was no sound save thier footsteps. Where were the employees? The researchers? Was nobody home?

Lance stopped as he thought he spotted something moving down the end of a corridor that branched off to his left. Without saying anything, he started down the side-hallway, gun aimed in front of him. As such, he failed to see the security camera suddenly turn on its pivot and focus on him. But what he did hear however, was the sound of a metal door slamming down behind him.

* * *

Rachel blinked, as she turned her head slightly and seen Lance sneaking off down a side-hall. She turned to follow him, but before she could even get two steps towards him, a metal gate suddenly slammed down between them.

"COLONEL!!" she yelled, dashing to the door and pounding on it with her fists, "WHATS GOING ON?!"

Both her and Leon pounded at the door, but it was no use. Finally, they heard Schneiders voice, muffled from behind the thick metal.

"Keep going, it looks like this corridor leads to another part of this buidling, i'll meet up with you later, just get going!"

"But-" Rachel objected, but Lance just cut her off again.

"-No buts Leiutenant, you can't break down this door, GO. That's an order!"

Rach gave the door a final kick "fine, but you better get your military ass back here soon, get me?" . She heard the sound of the Colonel's footsteps as he walked off down the corridor, then she sighed and turned to look at Leon. "Well, looks like its just us two...again."

Leon laughed slightly as they carried on down the hall "no problem there, "Red"..."

As they set off together, Red couldn't get rid of the bad feeling she had...that Lance was in far more danger then he knew...

* * *

Damn security measuers. Lance cursed himself for not being more careful. He'd seen the camera posted by the metal door, and realised it must be part of the buildings security, more than likely this place was on lockdown. Meaning something had gone wrong here, like that creature that had almost eaten his co-worker. Had it escaped, killed the employees then hidden in the storeroom? He couldn't be sure.

The first three doors he tried were locked, but the fourth opened. A quick check revealed nothing inside, and he crept cautiously in. The first thing that caught his eyes was a computer screen, at the far end of the room. It was switched on, its screen glowing a sickly green. Lowering his gun, he walked over to it, reading what was written on the screen.

_**Day 27,**_

_**The test subject is violent, it attacked the worker that came to feed it yesterday, near tore his arm out of its socket. How're we meant to study this thing when it can easily kill us in one blow? The supervisor has insisted we contiue monitoring its behavior, althought theres not much point. All it does is watch us, like its hungry for human flesh.**_

_**This THING is supposed to be a B.O.W? Its controllers will be eaten before they can give it an order! How is that useful?**_

Lance stared in a mix of shock and confusion.

"B.O.W? What in blazes were they doing here?"

Then a voice spoke behind him.

"Oh, lots of things, aren't they interesting?"

Lance whipped round, pointing his Sig-Sauer at the figure advancing on him. The man was tall, dressed in black combat gear, with slicked-back blonde hair, and sunglasses hiding his eyes.

"Now now, there's no need to point that thing at me." The man kept walking towards him.

"Stay back!" Lance ordered, keeping the P228 aimed at him "Who are you?!"

"Oh wouldn't YOU like to know.." the blonde man said softly, a smirk appearing on his face. Then, before Lance could even blink, the man had vanished in a blur, and appeared right behid him. He tried to turn round, but he was too slow. The blonde figure had pulled a hypodermic needle from his pocket, and before the Colonel could even comprehend what was going on, the needle was jabbed into his neck, and the whole world went black.

* * *

The blonde, known to many as Albert Wesker, smirked as the pale-haired soldier fainted imidiately after he jabbed him with the needle. He picked the out cold figure up, and walked calmly out of the room with him.

Down the corridor, round a corner, and into a set of double doors at the very end. Into the testing lab. He put his unconious victim down on one of the blood-stained medical tables, and strapped him down, just in case he should wake up during the important part.

He punched a code into a safe in the far wall, and from within this safe he withdrew a single needle, inside which was a dark green fluid. He couldn't refrain from chuckling to himself as he walked back to the awaiting subject.

"You have the honor of being the test subject for my new and improved strain..." He jabbed the needle into the pale blondes neck. Lance flinched slightly, but didn't wake, and still stayed asleep even as Wesker pushed the plunger, injecting the substance directly into the Colonel's body.

"Now, lets see how well you do, my little subject." He undid the straps, and lifted the body from the table. He dumped him back in the room where he'd first knocked him out. All the young man would remember was feeling dizzy, then nothing. Not for a while at least.

Now to just wait for the virus to kick in...

* * *

Note #1: Yes, the gun Lance carries is real, the **SIG-Sauer P228**, military issue firearm.

Note #2: Notice anything intersting about the box-code?


	3. Rates of Infection

For my lone reviewer, Slasherbynight6

It was a good 20 minutes before the Colonel finally regained consciousness. And the first thing he did upon waking up, was to make a desperate dive for a nearby washbasin, as his stomach decided to reject that mornings attempt at breakfast.

Stomach done playing up, he slumped against the wall, his breathing somewhat ragged. What the hell was wrong with him? The last thing he remembered was hearing a voice, then everything just went black.

--How the hell could I have fainted? That's NEVER happened. Something's wrong here..--- Even as he thought this, he automatically rubbed at his neck, at the exact spot where the viral injection had been put into him...

Yet he didn't think to check, just got to his feet and staggered towards the door, noting something shiny lying in front of it. A key. Had that been there earlier? He couldn't be sure, but either way, it might help him find his way back to his partner, and that other guy.

* * *

While all this had been going on, Leon and Rachel had gotten inexplicably...lost. 

"Where the hell are we? This place is like a labyrinth?!" Rach cursed, "And it doesn't help either, that most of the doors wont open!"

"Maybe we need to find a lock system, it's probably electronic." was Leon's suggestion.

As they tried all the doors, Rach noticed they had symbols on. Some had a Biohazard sign, others displayed a shield with an "S" stamped on it, and one door, which looked like it might lead somewhere important, had a card-key reader beside it.

"Don't suppose you know how to pick locks do ya?" Red asked, and sighed when Leon shook his head. At last they found one door, devoid of markings, that opened. It was cold, and a row of containers lined the wall opposite the door. But they were all empty, the glass smashed. There's was a lone workstation next to the row of capsules. To the left of it was a large glass window, which looked into an empty, but blood-splattered room.

-- I don't think I wanna know what went on in here...-- Rachel wandered over, and looked at the screen. It displayed what looked like a building map. She tapped the print icon, and a piece of paper slipped into a tray at the side of the workstation. That was a map found at least.

She poked and prodded a few other buttons, and one finally got a response. A part of the wall rose up, revealing a locked safe. She sighed; she didn't know how to open safes, except with dynamite. She and Leon tried to get it open, but with no combo to go on, it was a pointless task.

Leon spotted a steel storage cupboard over in the far corner. He had to tug at the doors for a bit to get them open, and wished he hadn't. For once he got the doors open; out fell the dead body that had been stuffed in there. But he noticed something sticking out of the body's lab coat pocket. He pulled it out, it was a piece of scrap paper, part of what had to be a fax or memo.

"...-how you always forget the combo, so I changed it to the day and month of your birthday, you should be able to remember that!"

Red took a look at it and sighed, how were they going to know the girls birthday? She quickly checked the body, and found an ID card.

"Miranda Harper, Lab Assistant." she read out. Then looked at the terminal. Surely it had access to a database?

Leon watched in confusion as she started poking and prodding the computer, then typed in something off the ID card. Seconds later it beeped and she cheered, turning to grin at him.

"Bingo, its '22/06'" she chuckled; obviously pleased, and set to work on the safe. The reward for figuring this out was the finding of a key in the safe. On it was etched a biohazard symbol.

They grinned at each other, but barely had they gotten two steps then they heard a cracking sound. They turned slowly, not wanting to see but unable to stop themselves staring.

It resembled a very large primate, its fur a pale white, its eyes a blood red. It raised its massive talons again and battered them against the glass. And again. Then it gave way, the shattering sound jerking the two out of their trances. They bolted for the door, but were dismayed to find it locked somehow.

Rachel panicked, and whipped out her Berretta, and began firing point blank at its head. It charged at her as she kept firing, and with one swipe of its heavy arm, had slammed her into the door. But it didn't get to snap her neck as it hoped to, as another bullet buries itself in its neck.

Leon gave another bullet between the eyes as it turned to face him. He ducked and dodged, firing bullet after bullet into the things body as it swung at him. Eventually, it collapsed to the ground, a grand total of 15 bullets buried in it. The next second, Rachel fell backwards into the hall as the door unlocked itself, and swung open. She blinked, what the hell was that all about?

Still clasping the key, she and Leon high-tailed it outta there, to find the doors that matched the symbol, and start unraveling this strange, nameless building.

* * *

In a room located behind locked doors, Wesker sat back in his chair and smirked, they'd passed the first test he'd "released" just for them, a creature known as "Eliminator". And there were plenty more for them to find...

* * *

They went right back to where they'd started, and began unlocking the door with biohazard etchings. The first led into a massive room that was full of kennels. Blood was streaked all over the floor and in the cages as well. The cage's occupant's didn't take too happily to these intruders, and they nearly got chewed to pieces by the pack of infected Dobermans. 

"Ugh, always preferred cats myself.." Rachel grumbled, poking a dog corpse with her foot to check it was really dead. Leon just shrugged and began poking through the papers scattered on the desk at the far end of the room. Sadly they uncovered nothing new, no name for this strange lab.

* * *

The next room was a little more useful, in it they found another researchers body, it looked like it had been mauled to bits by some sort of clawed beast, maybe one of those monkey things that had almost clobbered them? Clutched in the researchers hand was what looked like a small metal square. Red turned it over in her hands, what was it for? On it was engraved what looked like part of a letter, a S, maybe? 

She showed it to Leon, but he didn't know what it was either. His only guess was that maybe it was part of a locking mechanism, and with all the pieces they might be able to find something. But how many where there?

They left the room, still in the dark about the whole place, but outside in the corridor, they soon forgot about it. Walking towards them from the end of the hall was what seemed to be a 6 foot tall man wearing a trench coat. But as it stomped closer, Leon stared in shock and recognition, it couldn't be...A Tyrant?

The Tyrant spotted them staring, and from the folds of its coat it pulled out a grenade launcher.

There was no time to think of a plan, all they could do was run, hearing the sound of that thing prepping the weapon, its firsts hot missed red by mere inches, and left a smoking crater in the wall. They tore round the corner, and tried to open the door at the end, but it was locked shut.

Rachel shook her head, this couldn't be happening...no way. The thing re-loaded the grenade gun, and strode towards them , leveling the weapon. But it didn't get a chance to fire, for the door behind them opened, and someone yanked them into the room, the door slamming shut in the Tyrants face.

As soon as their mysterious helper released her collar, Rach whipped round, and stared in surprise and relief.

"Colonel!"

Lance looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "well who were you expecting?" he asked coldly.

Leon sighed in relief; it was only that blonde snobby officer, not some crazed lunatic.

"Get a move on, that thing will have the door open any second, this way!" Lance pointed to an air vent he'd sued to get into the room.

With some effort they squiggled up into the vent, which led back to another room some distance away.

The room they emerged in was an office, with a massive desk in it, the walls lined with bookshelves crammed full of folders.

Red showed lance the piece of metal she'd found.

"What d'ya think this is?" she asked him. He turned it over in his hands, and red thought she seen them shaking a bit, but when he spoke a second later, she forgot about it.

"Yeah, I found one just like it.." he reached into his pocket, and pulled out a second piece of metal. Red started, looking at the two pieces. But she still couldn't figure out what they were for.

"How did you find your way here?" Leon asked, looking at lance.

Lance held up a silver key, "this. I found it I one of the rooms." He decided not to mention the passing-out-then-throwing-up part of his adventures. Truth be told, he STILL felt like crap, but he didn't fancy telling those two, it'd slow things down.

Leon stared at the other, something was weird. Where was the by-now standard grouchy complaints about their lack of speed/info?

Before either one could ask questions Lance strode out of the room, not waiting for them to catch up. The sooner they were out of here, the better.

* * *

Wesker smirked as he watched the three walk down the corridor. He could see the officer he'd infected was slowly starting to feel the effects of the virus, but if he thought it was bad now, it was about to get worse. Much worse.

* * *

"Did you find anything else?" 

Red blinked as Lance finally spoke again. She held out the "biohazard" key. "Just this, but so far it hasn't unearthed anything useful. Except that they kept insane monkeys in here."

Lance was about to ask what the hell she was babbling about monkeys for, when they heard Leon swear. They looked ahead to see what he was swearing at, and added their own profanities to the mix, one British and one German.

It was tyrant, and it had gotten UGLIER. Its muscular capacity had almost doubled, its claws longer then before, and stained with blood. Behind them, there was the sound off any access doors locking. They were shut in.

--again?!-- Red swore mentally, then realized she could curse about the buildings systems alter. When they were less like to be deadified.

Tyrant roared angrily, started at these intruders, then ran for them, claws ready to disembowel whichever he got first.

Only he didn't get any of them, for all three split off and bolted different ways from him. So he went for the slowest. Which happened to be Rachel. Another swipe from its claws tore a gash down her arm, but not before she managed to fire 6 shots into its face. It staggered back, its angry cries echoing in the vats corridor.

So busy was it taking aim for another stab at Rachel, it didn't hear the two behind it. But it felt the combat knife slam into its neck.

Poor tyrant, you almost had to feel sorry for it. No sooner would it set its aim on one, then the rest would barrage it with gunshot. Fury overrode its instinct, and it began slashing blindly, hoping to catch one in its radius.

Finally it managed to corner the colonel. But he wasn't about to become a snack to this brainless freak. As tyrant raised its claw back for the final stab, lance fired upwards, at the ceiling light. It came free, swinging down and smacking tyrant with god-knows-how-many volts of electricity right to the skull.

It gave one final cry and collapsed tom the floor with a THUD that made the ground shake. Lance sighed in relief. Thank god that was over...

Red slumped against the wall with a weak sigh, blood dripping from the tear in her arm. Leon quickly moved to her, and the two set about stemming the blood flow, using some sprays and bandages.

All done, Red smiled at Leon. "Thanks, you two saved my ass."

Leon chuckled and poked her upside the head "all part of the job!" he laughed.

They were interrupted in their chat by an odd sound. A sound like someone about to be sick.

They turned to stare at the only other person it could possibly be.

They saw Lance holding onto the wall, hunched over slightly. One hand was covering his mouth, and his face was flushed. Overall, he didn't look so good all of a sudden.

Rachel blinked, then frowned, stepping over to his side "hey, what's wrong? You going to be sick or something-"

She was cut off as Lance suddenly shoved her away, and with amazing speed, hightailed it into the nearest washroom, just as the doors unlocked themselves again.

Leon started after him "what the-? what's with him?"

Red shrugged, still looking worried "I don't know. He's never gotten that sick before, he was fine when we came here, maybe-"

But she trailed off as her fellow officer finally stumbled back out of the bathroom door. Darting over, she brushed aside his attempt at an excuse and put her hand on his forehead. And pulled away instantly.

His temperature wasn't just off the chart; it was off the freaking planet.

"what the fuck..?!" lance managed to say at last. He'd felt like crap earlier, now he felt like he'd been run over by a Mack truck, which had then reversed and hit him again.

They dragged him over to a bench set against one of the walls. While Leon tried to ask the Colonel if he'd come into contact with anything, Red tried to think where she'd seen symptoms like this before.

Then, with what felt like a punch to the gut, she realized. The infection in the report. First high fever, then vomiting. The same one those kids had fallen prey to.

The one they hadn't found an antidote to...


	4. Blurred Memory

"Oh shit..." she cursed out loud, as she came to the realization that somehow he'd had contact with THAT virus.

"What?!" Lance snapped, glaring at her.

"What's wrong?" Leon asked, frowning at her suddenly shocked expression.

"The fever, vomiting, it all matches..."

"Matches what?!" Lance snapped again.

"The virus in the report.." Rachel answered shakily "I don't know how, Colonel, but what you're showing is the same as what the kids had...abnormally high temperature, nausea, I'm betting dizziness as well..."

Leon stared, confused. How had this guy gotten the virus so fast?

Rachel shook her head., how had this happened? Even the kids that had first gotten infected hadn't displayed the symptoms THIS fast, nor with such strength. Something was wrong here.

Lance closed his eyes, struggling not to vomit again. This had to be a joke. First he'd fainted then he'd been sick earlier, and he'd had to make another bathroom dash just now. Add the fact he felt dizzy just sitting there, and you had a problem.

"Is there nothing we can give him that'll ease it a little?" Leon asked.

Rachel thought for a moment "Antibiotics maybe, but those only lessen it a little..."

"Well we need to try something." Leon stated, getting to his feet. "Rach, you check the rest of the rooms that use this key, we'll try with the other key."

Rachel nodded, and got to her feet. She cast one more worried glance at her partner, he really didn't look good, would he be OK?

Lance looked up at that moment, and seen her giving him that worried look. He glared irritably, knowing if she started worrying, her focus would go out the window. "Move your ass Lieutenant, go!"

This at last got her moving, and with a final reassurance to Leon she'd be OK, she disappeared off down the corridor.

* * *

Leon sighed and turned back to the other officer. Great, he was stuck looking after monsieur snarky-pants here. It was obvious Rachel worried about him a great deal, but it seemed to him that Lance did nothing but snap at her.

After several minutes, the colonel finally managed to stand and the two set off to try to find something to ease the fever.

* * *

Another figure strode the corridors, high heels tapping out a pattern on the cold, sterile flooring. A red dress hugged her slim figure perfectly; raven black hair shining slightly in the harsh overhead lighting. She ducked behind a pillar seconds later as she heard footsteps headed towards the corridor she was in.

The footsteps rounded the corner, and then stopped, as whoever it was took a breather.

Cautiously she peered round the pillar. And felt a shock run through her. Standing there, catching her breath was a girl in a bullet-proof red jack, marked by a raven symbol.

--No way...how is she here? The one with the red jacket...--

* * *

The two guys stumbled along in relative silence. Leon was concentrating on finding a door that matched the key Lance had found, (an "S" was marked on it), and Lance himself was trying not to be sick or pass out again.

At last, they came to door that matched, with not a word spoken between them. The room was a large one, and it was full with a dozen weapons lockers on one wall. While Leon went to investigate, Lance meandered over to the door in the left corner. He entered cautiously, and almost threw up. For inside the room was a dead, disgusting THING. It looked grey, and slimy, with spikes protruding from its body. And the stench was stomach churning.

He stood there a moment, half-expecting it to rise and attack. But it didn't move, so he carefully stepped over it, noting yet another door in the room, which on inspection after unlocking it, led into another corridor.

He turned back to the room with the dead thing in, and began going through all the cabinets in the dingy room. Most were empty, but in one he found something he thought looked useful.

_**Supervisors Instructions:**_

_**Two more bodies today, they are to be disposed off in the incinerator on B1F. Make sure all bodies are thoroughly disposed off, burn clothes in separate unit.**_

Lance stared. Clothes? So far all the things he'd seen running about were as bare-ass naked as they knew how, so it couldn't be talking about those creatures. Was it talking about...human bodies?

As he stood there staring in feverish befuddlement at the paper, he heard a shuffling noise behind him. Not wanting to see but knowing he had to look, he turned round. The thing he'd presumed dead earlier was on its feet, staring balefully at him. It opened its mouth and made a strange, gurgled cry.

"hhhgh...hurggkh..."

It began stumbling towards him. He backed up, his mind screaming at him to shoot the damn thing, but he couldn't get his body to respond. As he fumbled for the weapon, the thing came up close and swung its heavy spiked arm at him. The resulting blow knocked him against the door, which clicked open and dumped him onto the cold hallway outside.

He lay there, half dazed, his mind not computing what was going on. He heard the things footsteps, and closed his eyes.

--Shit, nothing in all of my training has come even close to this...-- he thought. And expected the final blow to come. But it never did. There were several gunshots, and a popping noise, followed by the sound of something splattering the floor.

Before he passed out completely, he caught a glimpse of high heels, and a red dress...

Then everything went black.

The woman in the red dress, her name being Ada Wong, was surprised when the door just a few feet ahead of her was flung open, and even more startled when someone fell out of it. Whoever it was looked in pretty bad shape and she soon saw why. A Regenerator. One of the disgusting THINGS she'd seen on the island, came stumbling out after him.

Wasting no time she emptied a full clip into the monster, watching with disgust as its upper body exploded all over the place. She knelt down by the now out cold figure. He didn't look much older then 21, with pale blonde air. And she stared at the insignia on his uniform. It was the same as red-jackets.

--So, he's from that strange army too...but why are they here? -- she wondered. But she was startled out of her revere seconds later, by a familiar voice.

"Ada?"

* * *

Leon had been in the process of emptying the weapons lockers when he'd heard a crash, followed by gunshots, then an all-too familiar POP. He dashed through the corner-door, and through the one in there. And seen someone kneeling over the Colonel's prone body. A woman he knew so well.

She looked up as he spoke her name, and something like a smile appeared on her face.

"Well well, looks like we meet again, eh Leon?" She smiled at how he seemed dumbstruck at seeing her. She indicated the unconscious Colonel, "I assume he was with you. He's from that same army as the other girl..."

Leon quickly knelt by Lance's side, and checked his temperature. It had gotten worse, he looked in pretty bad shape.

"Yeah, He and Rachel were sent here to investigate, along with me.."

Ada raised an eyebrow "Rachel? So that's her name..." she shrugged slightly, then looked at Schneider again, "so what's the matter with him?"

Leon shrugged "we're not sure, but whatever it is, it's pretty bad, its done this much damage in barely a couple of hours..."

Ada frowned, she'd been sent there by the organization, to recover a potential viral threat. Could this be the virus she had to recover? From the looks of it, it was eating this guy alive from inside…

She took advantage of Leon's preoccupation with waking Lance up to vanish off down the corridor, so when Leon looked up next, she was gone.

* * *

Another door the key unlocked led into a big room with a massive flat screen taking up all of one wall. A desk was seated opposite it, and a few filing cabinets lined one wall. other than these things, there was nothing else. She was about to leave when she noticed something on the desk. At first glance it just looked like a statue of a chimera, but on closer inspection, she saw it had four rectangular slots on the front.

She took the piece of metal from her pocket and slotted it, after some thinking, into one of the slots. But nothing happened, for there were three more slots still empty. She sighed, but at least she'd found something, it was a start.

She heard the door lock behind her and she froze. Not again. The air vent above her head rattled, then the cover fell open with a bang. She leapt back, gun ready, and felt her stomach churn at what dropped down.

It had a decidedly weird appearance. It had but one arm, and that was large and bulked up. Green, pulsing veins covered the appendage, and its head, partly sunken into its massive shoulder, turned to look at her. Then its arm lashed out and missed her by inches as she ducked just seconds later.

It let out an angry roar, and swung the arm at her again. This time it succeeded in knocking the wind out of her. The gun skittered from her grip as she hit the floor, lodging itself under the radiator. She cursed, looking up to see the thing lumbering over to her.

There was only one way to settle this. With a pissed yell she sprang from the floor, and began hitting the living crap out of it. It stumbled back, roaring angrily at each punch and kick to its body. She knew if she let up for a second she was dead meat, so she rained blow after blow down on its fleshy body. A further kick to its face sent it reeling back towards the desk, and she took the momentary lapse to search for something to hit it with.

She spotted an umbrella in a stand in the corner. She dove for it, pulling it from the rack, and slamming the sharp metal point at its end straight into the things skull.

It was force enough to puncture its brain, causing instant hemorrhage. It flailed about wildly, and then slumped to the floor, an umbrella poking out of its head.

Rachel massaged her aching knuckles and sighed. Then she spent a few minutes retrieving the gun from where it had gotten lodged. Weapon retrieved she remembered the filing cabinets.

The first letter she pulled out had a large "S" emblazoned on it. But no other identifying words. But it was what was written on the paper that interested her.

_**Obtain battle data.**_

_**Lure the combatants into the area, and have the supervisor obtain actual battle data against the B.O.W.s.**_

She frowned. Could this have ANYTHING to do with the fact they'd ended up here? No way, right? But she was beginning to suspect something was up. First that weird locking mechanism at the warehouse, then the underground tunnel to here, and now Lance was sick. It was all too convenient.

---That virus is spread by blood infection, but Lance hadn't a scratch on him. So how did he get infected, and how can we stop it..?--

The rest of the papers were pretty much useless. None mentioned the location of an anti-virus, or even a pharmacy lab on this place. She took the ones that interested her, and walked out the door, which of course, had unlocked itself as soon as she'd killed that thing, whatever-it-was...

---Maybe if we find the last of those rectangles, they'll lead to something useful...-- she hoped as she walked off.

* * *

Wesker raised an eyebrow as he watched the girl fight. Shed lost her gun not 5 seconds into the fight with the "Bandersnatch", yet she hadn't given up. She'd started an all-out assault on the creature, ending with an umbrella to the head.

"Not bad little girl, you have more talent then you first showed...pity its not you I'm interested in.."

* * *

Fuzzy images of a room, of a needle, and someone's laughter. All these fuzzy images and more raced through Lance's mind as he struggled to fight with the virus. Something was trying to make itself known to him, but what?

--Who?-- he thought fuzzily. A brief image showed itself in his addled mind. Eyes hidden by dark glasses, pale skin, a flash of slicked back blonde hair...then nothing.

He heard a crash nearby and was quickly jerked out of his nightmare. Propping himself up on one arm he looked to where the noise had come from.

Leon had been poking through the glass doored cabinets when he'd accidentally knocked a container over with his hand. It crashed to the floor, and the out cold figure he'd dumped on the couch woke up with a start.

He looked over, and seen Lance giving him a "WTF" look. The guy looked more out of it then before, if that was possible.

"Don't mind me, just wrecking the place." Leon said jokingly, as he continued his search for anything that might be a clue to the infection the colonel was suffering from.

Lance opened his mouth to give the American a sarcastic response, but was interrupted instead by a coughing fit. It was over in less then a few seconds, but when he moved his hands away from his mouth, he noted dizzily that there was blood on them.

"Oh shit.." he muttered, sitting up quickly, though the movement made his head spin. He stared at his blood stained hands and felt about to be sick. What the hell was wrong with him??

Leon heard the officer swearing and looked over to ask what the matter was. And found he didn't need to. The other was sitting up, staring at his hands, which were covered in blood splatters.

Leon swore, Rachel had mentioned this as part of the symptoms, how quickly was this virus eating away at the guy?

He heard footsteps outside the door, and quickly aimed his gun at the doorway. It slowly inched open, and he prepped the weapon to fire. And lowered it a second later as Rach came in. The two stared at each other, and then sighed in relief.

"Leon, I found something useful.." she quickly told him about the statue and the rectangles.

Leon took this in, and realized it may be their only lead. Together they helped the unsteady Colonel to his feet and set off to continue their search together.

"We're not the only ones here, Rach." Leon said quietly, as they walked "Ada's here too."

Red started at him "Ada? But why..." she shook her head slightly. "what could she be after?"

Leon shrugged, he didn't know.

Red sighed, and then remembered something from that very morning.

"That reminds me, I seen someone else, maybe they're to do with this?"

"Seen who? And where?" Leon asked.

Red blinked "Outside the main RRA building. He looked kind of weird. He had blonde hair, and he wore these shades over his eyes. He was dressed all in black too…"

Leon stared at her. Only one person he'd ever heard of matched that description. The one he had heard Ada was working for, Albert Wesker. He'd seen some info on the guy, enough to know he was bad news.

Here Lance managed a moment of lucidity; he blinked and mumbled something that made both of them freeze mid-walk.

"-freaky glasses? 'think I mi'tve seen 'im.." he hiccupped "can't remember what for though...think I passed out..."

Leon and Rachel stared at each other, Lance must've seen Wesker, and if Wesker made himself known, Leon knew, then it usually meant trouble. Did Lance + Wesker equal "Virus injected into body"?


	5. Pieces of the Past

AN: Can of Coke + Can of Coke + Can of Coke equals: OMG BLADDER.

* * *

Leon couldn't believe it, Wesker was involved? He tried to question the dizzy Colonel as to whether he as sure he'd seen him, but lance either ignored him, or he couldn't hear what he saying, for he didn't answer.

--Shit, this is bad. But I don't understand why he'd do this..-- Leon wondered to himself --just how is having this guy infected with the virus helping him?--

* * *

From his little hidey-hole somewhere in the massive lab, Wesker smirked. Sp they'd figured it out. NO need to worry, like he'd done many times before, once they'd served their purpose, he'd simply kill them and dispose of them, after all, what else were those special incinerators for?

But just the Red Jacket and Leon. After all, he needed the other one for the next stage of his plan, he couldn't have him die...from anything but the virus.

But how to separate them...?

* * *

Rachel led them back to the room she'd pole axed the Bandersnatch in, and sure enough, its umbrella impaled body was still there. 

Leon pulled a face "that is GROSS, what is it? And why does it have an umbrella stuck in it?"

Rachel shrugged "I have no idea and I wanted to kill it", were her answers to the above questions.

She slotted the second piece into the statue, and sighed, looking at the other two spaces yet to be filled.

--Where the heck are we going to find them? And even if we do, where does it lead?—

These questions and more spun round in her head. Maybe it would give them a clue to the missing cardkey that the last door remaining required. --But where does THAT door lead? Is there a basement level here too?--

"We've search pretty much every room, maybe we missed something, we gotta go back and check them over..." Leon at last suggested. It sounded like a good enough plan, check every nook and cranny of this place to see if they could get the last pieces.

But just as they began to leave, there was a muted click, as the doors locked themselves again. Red frowned, was it another Bandersnatch? One of those weird monkey things perhaps?

As it happened, it was neither, the only thing that came filtering through the vent in the ceiling...was gas.

"What the?!" Rachel swore, sniffing the air "what is it?"

"Its gas, hold your breath!" Leon commanded, as he made an attempt at knocking the door down, but it was no good, it was securely locked.

But they couldn't hold their breath for long, they did have to breath eventually. But unfortunately for them, just a small amount of the gas was enough to cause instant KO. So one breath was all it took.

Several minutes after the gas had dissipated, the door unlocked, and someone strode in. It cast a quick glance over the sleeping figures, then seen the one it was after. It carefully picked that person up, and simply carried them from the room.

The other two would get to live a little longer, for he wasn't done testing the B.O.W.s yet...and he needed more battle data.

* * *

--Ugh, my head...-- Rachel thought groggily as she finally came round after the gassing. What the hell had happened? She sat up, looked round to see if the other two were okay, and discovered the problem. 

"LEON!!" she yelled at him, giving the American a rough shake. He swatted a hand at her, and tried to go back to sleep. So she tried again.

"Leon!! The Colonel, he's gone!!" There words woke Leon up pretty fast. He sat up quickly, realizing in a second that she was right.

"But how?" he asked. Then realized, the gas incident had been set up just for this. "That "Wesker" asshole, this is his doing!" he swore, Rachel looked upset, and worried.

"What're we going to do? We gotta get him back!" She shook her head "god knows what that guy will do to him!!"

Leon opened his mouth to answer her, but then the phone on the desk rang.

Both turned to stare at it, and eventually Red reached up at took the handset, holding it up to her ear.

"Hello...?" her voice seemed to echo on the line, and thought it was just a dead call, but then she heard a voice. A slick, oily voice that made her blood run cold.

"So you're one of the rats that's been scurrying around my laboratory?"

Leon strode over and pressed the speakerphone button, the voice rang out clearly in the cold room.

"And it's good to see you too Leon."

Red's hands clenched tightly, she glared at the phone "Can the pleasantries "Wesker", where's the Colonel?!"

The voice laughed "so he told you my name, hm? Well, no matter." one the other end of the phone Wesker smirked, then continued "as for your precious Mr. Schneider, he's in my hands now, so don't worry."

Rachel slammed the table with her hands, glaring at the phone "What the hell are you planning?! WHY HIM?!"

Wesker just laughed "One thing at a time. First of all, I need your precious officer because only with his...type, will the virus work."

Leon stared "Type? You mean his nationality?"

Wesker laughed coldly "let me give you a little back history I bet your friend hasn't told you. At the time when raccoon city was infected with the virus, a special squad was sent into the city to try and recover some important items of interest. Most unfortunately, they were killed in the missile attack, it wasn't considered a priority to get them out."

Rachel stared, what was this guy on about?!

Wesker continued "It was some months prior to now that I came across their medical records. Two in particular caught my eye, a Michael and Fran Schneider. Perhaps you know them?"

Rachel gaped "his...parents..."

"That's correct little girl. I discovered they both had a very rare DNA type, one which could have been useful for far more then just a common zombie. I did some research, and found out they had a son, who would have inherited that condition since both parents carried it."

"So you set this whole thing up just to get your hands on him?!" Leon snapped.

"Precisely. It took some time to find him, but by chance, one of my workers found out he was working in your little militia."

Rachel stared as she finally figured it out "the break in...when those samples were stolen! You've been using a mutated form of the virus? ARE YOU INSANE?!"

Wesker just laughed "far from it. With his help, I can create something far superior to the Tyrant, better then anything ever imagined."

Red tilted her head slightly, and seen a glint in the top corner of the room. So he was watching them too. She turned to look at the camera, her eyes cold and angry.

"That virus is going to KILL him, what good is THAT to you?!" she yelled. "You must've really lost it you stupid bastard!!"

"I'd watch your language little girl, and far from it, his unfortunate demise will help me enormously. You see, once the body is dead, the virus can fully take over, mutate if you will...and become my creation, my servant."

There was a click, and the line went dead.

"IM GONNA KILL YOU ASSHOLE!!" Rachel yelled. Leon stared at the phone which was now emitting a dull tone. Wesker had lost it, he must have.

Rachel forced herself to calm down, getting upset wouldn't get her friend away from that madman.

"There...has to be a cure..." she choked out at last, re-loading her berretta, "let's go."

Leon nodded, and followed her out of the room. He recalled the same reaction from when she'd found the proof of the pilots deaths just last year. She wouldn't rest until someone paid the price.

* * *

In an underground lab, below the incinerator room, Wesker put the phone down and laughed slightly. It was fun to toy with the other two, madden them with the knowledge that they could scurry about all they liked, they would never reach him in time... 

He swiveled his chair slightly, to glance over at the experiment table, where the focus of this whole idea lay. The figures breathing was irregular, the monitors showed the fever and sickness were rapidly winning. As he watched, the young man made an attempt to waken, but exhaustion quickly won over and he fell into sleep again. Not long now.

* * *

"Rachel, wait!" Leon called after her. She was striding off blindly, gun in hand. He had to calm her down before she did something stupid. He put on a burst of speed and grabbed her arm, pulling her round to face him. 

And seen from the look on her face that if she'd been mad before, she was furious now. Or upset at least.

He sighed, and wondered how to sort her out. She swiped her sleeve across her eyes, and sniffed slightly.

"Sorry...but when I think of people like Wesker killing people for amusement, it makes me sick..." she said at last.

Leon patted her shoulder, offering a weak smile "don't worry, we'll get him back-"

"Well well, am I interrupting something?" Both turned at the sound of a familiar voice.

"Ada?" red blinked, remembering what Leon had said earlier.

Ada smiled "Long time no see, 'Rachel', isn't it?" she walked towards them, and in one smooth movement, tossed two objects towards her without breaking stride. "Catch."

Rachel quickly caught the two objects, and stared in surprise. They were the last two of the metal pieces they needed for the statue.

"Where did you-?" Leon asked as Ada came to stop in front of them. She smiled, "oh, I did a little searching." she looked at Rachel, "Your little boyfriend got kidnapped didn't he?"

Rach nodded "Wesker has him. And he's he going to kill him if I don't do something.." she stared at the items, still in shock.

Ada nodded, then walked to her, turned her round, and shoved her towards the office again "then get a move on."

Numbly, Rachel did. Once the final slots were filled, a part of the wall next to the wall screen opened up, and inside lay a pass card. They didn't need telling twice, they dashed full speed for the card-locked door they'd come across at the start.

--I only hope we're not too late...--- Rachel thought fearfully. --Please don't let him die...--


	6. Flight to Freedom

Chapter 6

Authors Note: I have a Gamecube now, Resident Evil: Remake rocks! XD

Sorry this took so long, but between my brithday, a virus, and one hell of a mgirane, i didnt get this finished until today!

* * *

Oblivious to their success in getting the pass card, Wesker was keeping a close eye on his test subject. So far he'd remained asleep, but he had the occasional moment of lucidity. But they were getting more and more infrequent.

"Hmm, id best make sure I crush your little friends before they get too close..." Wesker smirked coldly, turning towards a console, when he heard the kid speak.

"Don't...you dare..."

He turned, one eyebrow raised behind his glasses, regarding the now-awake Schneider.

"I can do whatever I want, and there's no point in trying to stop. Besides..." he walked over to the table and looked coldly at his experiment-in-progress, "what can you do in your present condition, hm?"

Struggling to keep his mind in order, Lance glared at him "if you've...hurt either of them..."

"You'll do what?" Wesker just laughed, walking away from him, "Soon your mind will be gone and you'll serve a far greater purpose, so I wouldn't worry about it."

Lance opened his mouth to demand the guy explain what he meant, when he felt what could possibly have been the worst pain ever. HE twisted and struggled, but it was no use, the straps tying him to the table stopped him from moving even the slightest bit.

After several seconds the backlash of pain subsided, and he drifted between sleep and awakening, struggling to breathe as his mind tried to sort itself out after the shock it had just received.

Wesker smirked at his captives yells of pain as the virus stepped up its campaign to slowly kill him off.

"You might as well accept it...you're mine now."

* * *

"Is there no way of contacting your HQ?" Leon asked.

Red shook her head "Phone wont work in here and the only long-range radio we have is in the chopper, which is parked by the stupid warehouse..."

Ada blinked; they'd brought a helicopter along? This could prove useful.

At last they came to the door, and with a single swipe of the card, the doors clicked open, and they pushed through. It led into another stainless hallway, it6s white walls offset by the occasional splatter of blood. Red wrinkled her nose.

"Ugh, something stinks here..." she muttered.

She and Leon automatically prepped their handguns, knowing blood on walls meant something was lurking hereabouts.

--Where are you Wesker?!-- Rachel thought furiously. Her hands shook slightly, as images of what that bastard might do to her teammate ran through her mind.

A soft tapping sound interrupted their thoughts, and they looked ahead, and kept right on staring.

Crawling along the wall was a grotesque thing. It had no eyes to speak of, rather its brain was on display, its muscled body rather like a combination of a human and a lizard.

"How the-?!" Leon muttered, shaking his head "Those things..."

Red stared "you've seen them before?"

Leon nodded "They were in Raccoon city...they can't see but they can hear you, so be quiet..."

The three snuck along quietly, managing to sneak right by the creature, and on rounding the corner, seen only one door. Rachel stared "no way is it that simple..."

Ada shrugged "lets go in then, we have to keep going.."

Rachel nodded, and they found that the door used the same card key as the other one. The moment they stepped in, they felt like they'd been stuck in an oven to bake. It was boiling in there. And it stank too. A door in the corner had "Emergency Stairwell" stamped on it but it was locked, and it was made of heavy steel, so it wouldn't budge if they rammed it.

Red and Leon crept further into the room, but Ada hung back, she had no desire to get any closer. Besides, she had a plan...

Red shook her head "lookit that thing, industrial size, what were they up to?"

Leon shrugged "probably destroying the evidence..."

While red and Leon examined the incinerator that took up most the room, she snuck silently back out.

"There must be on off switch, hey Ada--huh?" Rachel turned to ask Ada to look for an off switch, only to find the woman had vanished.

"..she must be up to something.." Leon murmured, but sighed and joined Rachel as she began looking for the shutdown for the incinerator.

At last, round the back of the huge machine, they discovered a shut-off valve. The heat dimmed down in the room as the flames died out. They gave it a while to cool, and then crept closer. Nothing.

Or maybe...

"Leon! Look!" red pointed at a strange indentation in the center of the burner.

Leon squinted at it "must be a disposal chute, to dump the ashes..."

Rachel sighed, then suddenly grinned "then that means its gotta lead to the lower levels!"

Leon looked at the half-hidden chute door and sighed, it looked like their only idea right now, so why not?

They waited impatiently until it had cooled enough for them to clamber in, flip up the chute cover with a metal pole, and drop down it.

By pressing their backs against one side and using their legs to descend, they made a slow way down, the walls of the chute blessedly cool compared to the residual heat of the chamber above. Dry, grey ash drifted down at every movement, and red sneezed what had to be over 15 times.

Eventually, after some minutes, a maintenance hatch opened up on one side. Stamped on it was "B2".Rachel kicked the door out, and somehow she and Leon managed to tumble in. The room was plain, stocked with a few lab coats and hard hats, evidently the chutes maintenance/cleaners room.

Covered in ash and soot, the bedraggled pair stumbled out into the corridor. Red was still sneezing form the amount of dust in the chute. She let out a particularly loud one as they exited the room, and soon regretted it. For swarming all over the walls were dozens of those lickers. And the sneeze, echoing in the empty hallway, attracted all their attention.

"Crapfuck.." she swore, and sneezed again.

They raced down the corridor, firing intermittently at the lickers as they chase dafter them. One particular shot that Leon had to admire was when red sneezed just as she pulled the trigger. The shot bounced of a metal pipe, and got one of them right between the eyes.

They ducked into an office room and shoved a desk in front of the door. Peace gained for now, they too a look around. It was FULL of filing cabinets, even more than any of the other rooms. Rachel noticed a map tacked to the wall, and quickly gained a bit of hope.

She showed it to Leon, clearly marked on the map was a heliport. It was on the floor above, B1, and if the emergency mechanism was triggered in the whole building, the underground heliport would open up. As would the emergency lifts.

"But first we gotta find your colonel...and no doubt wherever he is, Wekser'll be right behind..." Leon said quietly, and sighed. This was getting more and more complicated every second.

* * *

The sound of screeching on one of the cameras drew Weskers attention away from his half-dead subject.

"What?! NO!" he snarled, as he seen a very sooty pair pegging it down the hall. How had they gotten down there so quickly? He'd hidden the other metal pieces very carefully, only someone who had worked with him before would know...

"The bitch in the red dress...it must be her..." he growled. But he could still kill the two before they caused any fuss.

In fact, why not lure them out? After all, he had the bait...

* * *

Out in the corridor again, they finally disposed of the last of the lickers, and the hall was quiet again. But not for long. They heard an unearthly screech, and the next second, a strange, reptilian beast dropped down in front of them. And another, and another. Three of them.

It was total mayhem. They had to divide their attention between all three, or else risk getting mauled. It wasn't easy. Rachel shot at the kneecaps of the creatures, while Leon aimed for the head. Together, this method just about saved their hides, and after several near death misses by those thins claws, three dead monsters littered the hall.

Rachel stared down at the corpses, and as one gave a final spasmodic twitch as its life left it, she noticed each one hand a collar on. And tucked into those collars was a security card.

She and Leon collected all three, then wondered what to do with them. Where did they lead?

They checked every room in the hall, and although many contained ammo, only one had a security card-lock. It was a normal sized door, didn't look important, but they barged on through anyway.

The first room was square and eerily clean. No blood, no dead monsters. Just empty.

Or not. She'd almost forgotten about those half-melted things she'd encountered at the beginning. But seconds after they entered an unseen door in the side of the room opened, and at least 15 of the things ambled out.

She and Leon stood, back to back, armed with the strongest guns they carried, and ready to kick melted ass.

But these things were far faster then the average zombie or villager. They pounced rather them shuffled towards their target. Soon it was a gruesome free-for-all, with gunshots going off left and right, body after body hitting the floor, viscous blood spreading across the floor.

One almost strangled Rachel, and had Leon not shot it in the back seconds later, it would've snapped her neck.

But at last it was over, they were all dead.

Rachel sat on the floor, coughing and wheezing, tired from the all-out fighting.

But at last she was able to get to her feet, and, by the use of the next card, they entered another room. This one was rectangular, and again seemed like it was empty.

The walls were a smooth white, and the silence echoed in their ears.

Nothing was there. Then they heard a whirring sound to one side. They whipped round, and felt their jaws drop at what came out. It was another tyrant, only this one was HUGE, at least 8 foot tall, with huge muscle capacity.

It roared, and the claw on its right side seemed to warp and burst free from the skin around it as it grew bigger, and sharper. Then, with a speed that belayed its bulky mass, it dashed them.

Rachel felt the air slam out of her lungs as she hit the floor for the millionth time that day. She ducked and rolled to avoid tyrant's claws, aiming the gun and pumping an entire round into the back of the creature. It gave an angry roar and swung the claws at her again. The smack sent her flying into the far wall, and she heard a distinct cracking sound, and a jolt of pain ran down her arm.

--How're we...menna stop that thing..-- She thought dimly. Leon was thinking the same thing. Ordinary bullets didn't phase that thing; it simply shrugged them off and kept swinging at them.

As she fought to avoid it and still shoot at it, red noticed a tank of kerosene in the far corner. Something like a plan began to form in her mind. Shed ran for the tank pausing only to fire a shot at tyrant, to make sure it followed her. There was only one chance at this.

It gave an enraged yell and darted after her, brandishing its claws. She reached the tank of fuel, and with a yell partly of fury and partly of pain, she heaved the 2 1/2-foot tall canister with a strength she never thought she had, and hurled it at tyrant.

It struck home, the tyrants sweeping claw impaled itself nicely in the canister.

It roared, swinging the claw about as it struggled to dislodge its claws from the pressurized container. Red grinned, and aimed single handedly at the tank. She fired one shot, then ducked and covered her head. The fuel blasted aflame on contact with the bullet. Fire balled out, directly into its face, the flames burning its exposed skin. Pretty soon it became a tyrant fireball.

For the final piece de resistance, Leon flung a serrated combat knife into its neck, severing the spinal cord.

It gave one last dying cry, and then the floor shook as its body fell. Blood pooled out from around its corpse, the stench of burning flesh filling the room.

Rachel coughed and spluttered, gasping for air after that one. Now that the adrenaline surge was gone, she felt the throbbing pain of an arm with a few shattered bones in it.

"Wow, toasty." Leon remarked, and Rachel managed a weak laugh, which was followed by a wince as she got up.

"Let's go, before I throw up or pass out or something..." she managed, struggling not to do either.

The last card. This one had a gold Biohazard marking on it, against a silver background. No other writing, just that symbol.

Red and Leon looked at each other, was this it would they find Lance? They nodded to each other and slotted the card in.

The doors swung open. This room was circular, with a very high ceiling. Sticking out at various points, and at different heights, were odd triangular platforms, bronze and white. But that wasn't what got their attention.

Straight ahead was a capsule, a lot like the one Ashley had been kept in at the island. No guess as to who was inside this one.

"COLONEL!!" Rachel yelled, running over towards it. But she didn't make it, for just as she reached it, a blur moved from nowhere, grabbed her by the arm, and flung her back into Leon, knocking them flat on the floor.

"Oww..." Rach groaned. She quickly sat up, and started at what had thrown her.

Black outfit, blonde hair, sunglasses.

"Wesker..." She hissed, getting back onto her feet. "You asshole!!"

Wesker just laughed "now now, no need to be rude..."

Leon got to his feet and stood by red "let him go,."

"Oh I'm afraid I cant do that...see, I NEED him for my experiment." Wesker folded his arms and regarded them with a cold smile.

"You..how dare you!! Using innocent people for your sick experiments..." Rachel's hands clenched tightly, she hated this guy, hated how he could so calmly toy with peoples lives, like he thought he was a god.

"What's going on? Who are you working for?!" Leon snarled, and Wesker smirked again.

"Just look up you two..."

At this command, both did. And realized the truth very quickly. For if you stood in the very centre of the room, and looked up, then those wedge-shaped pieces of metal formed a familiar logo.

"Umbrella..." Rachel managed to say at last "but how...? The US shut them down!!"

Wesker laughed "you didn't think a measly senate could rid the world of umbrella, did you...? Oh we're still as alive and well as we ever were."

Crapfuck. Sweet merciful Crapfuck. That was all that reds mind could generate at this time.

Then something else interrupted. She blinked, then looked at Wesker.

"So it was you..messing with the doors, locking us in with those..those things!!"

Wesker laughed coldly, "Well aren't you a bright one? Of course it was me, I wanted to make sure my BOWs were perfect, and what better way to test them, then against the very people I needed out of my way. Plus I got my hands on my test subject, two birds with one stone, isn't that the saying?"

Red was pissed now, she wanted nothing more than to strangle Wesker with her bare hands. But this guy was far from human, that much she'd sussed out now. NO normal human could move at those speeds.

Leon fired at Wesker's head, but by the time the bullet had left the chamber, Wesker was already gone. He zoomed up to Leon, and knocked him flying halfway across the room.

"LEON!" Rachel yelled, then glared at Wesker "what gives you the right to screw with people like this?! WELL?!"

Wesker just laughed, and looked over at her "Because there's nothing you lot can do to stop me...you two can die, you're of no use to me."

Red could hear her pulse pounding in her ears, she was furious. Then she heard a faint crumbling noise. Then an almighty BOOM.

The ceiling gave in and large chunks of masonry came tearing down, right for where they were standing. Rachel and Wesker shot off in different directions, Rach hauling Leon out of harms way as chunks of cement ceiling hit the floor.

But that wasn't the end of it. As swirling dust and dust flurried in the air, a series of shots rang out, and there was the sound of something losing power...

Wesker glared though the piles of dust and dirt, what the hell was that?

As the sound of wrecking faded, he heard the unmistakable noise of chopper blades. Looking up his eyes narrowed as he seen a red and black copper hovering about, its gun turrets aimed at the spot were the ceiling was once lodged.

But it wasn't done yet, spotting Wesker it opened fire again, swerving about all over the place as it struggled to keep the aim at such an angle.

Wesker zipped left and right, deftly avoiding all bullets, this was a cake-walk. Did that bitch really think she could kill him that way?

But even if she couldn't kill him, Ada was doing something else by firing at him that way. Distraction.

Taking advantage of Wesker's mind being elsewhere, red dived for the capsule, and soon found out what the odd sound had been moments earlier. Three shots had hit the capsules main lock, shooting it out and short circuiting the whole device into the bargain.

With a burst of strength, she pushed the dented door open, and pulled her friend free from it.

"Come on, run!" Leon's voice echoed in her ear.

But Wesker had heard the sound of breaking glass, and he turned back to the capsule, in time to see the red-jacket pull her precious friend free. His precious experiment. He raced towards her, but karma was about to bite him in the ass, as he had discovered before.

Above his head, one of the metal triangles creaked, and with one final shot, came free altogether hurtling for Wesker. It made a sharp impact with his head, knocking him to the floor, the heavy metal pinning him only for a moment, before he threw it off. But it was long enough, for in that brief moment, red-jacket and Leon had escaped, with his precious experiment no less.

They tore down the hall, Leon carrying the unconscious colonel, heading back to the room with the emergency exit.

Wesker was furious, and when he got mad, there was hell to pay. Storming over to a console, he activated the self-destruct system. He had one last trick up his sleeve.

Hearing the sirens Rachel panicked, hearing the cold voice announcing they only had 5 minutes to evacuate.

They legged it down the hall, heading for the emergency exit.

--Why is he setting the destruct? Is he that determined to have the colonel?--

As expected, the emergency door had opened, the barreled through, into a dimly lit hallway, which wound round several corners and a flight of steps, before emerging in the freezing underground helicopter hangar.

The sound of whirling blades drew their attention, and they looked up just in time to see a chopper blocking out the floodlights as it made to land.

As soon as it touched ground, Ada stuck her head out "move it you three!" she yelled. They made a dash for the chopper, two fo them dragging the third along, but were interrupted by a screeching whine. Looking up they saw the previously open hatch above them starting to close, sealing them in, shutting off the night sky.

"What the-?!" Leon growled, looking around for someone to shoot. But there was nobody there...

"What a surprise, now I have all the rats in one place." All of them turned to look at the figure standing by the door. Wesker. He didn't look to pleased, a large bleeding cut trickled blood into one eye from where the metal triangle had pole axed him. His glasses had gotten lost amidst the rubble, and cold reptilian eyes gleamed in the dim light.

--So this was his plan, let us think we could get away, kill us here...no way...-- Red thought despairingly, then glared "You are one sick little puppy, ya know that..." she glanced quickly around her fore something, anything that might damage this guy.

"Maybe, but there's nothing you can do to stop me, so just hand him over..." Wesker strode towards them.

This was it, they were trapped. Red back up, unable to believe they were going to loose to this creep.

Or not. So focused on the two holding his precious experiment, Wesker hadn't thought to keep an eye on Ada. This was a pity for him.

She waited until he came within range, then suddenly yanked the controls up slightly, then pulled hard to the side. The end result was the chopper tilted almost vertically the whirring blades aiming for the infuriated Wesker.

He saw it coming, but not soon enough. He felt sharp metal blades tear into his gut, throwing him to the floor, his mind screaming from the unfamiliar pain.

Red and Leon had ducked and rolled right out of the way the moment they heard the chopper shift behind them. They heard the whirring blades above the head, and heard Wesker's mad screaming. Looking over they seen blood spray over the wall and floor, and Wesker collapse to the floor.

Wasting no time, red grabbed the side pack Wesker had been wearing the whole time. and fired at the bay hatch release control. Above them the doors re-opened. Midnight, how long had this gone on...?

Ada flung the chopper doors open, and they dived in without a second glance back. Without Wesker to shut off the self-destruct as he had planned, the countdown contained. And as they tore off into the night sky, it came to an end. A massive boom shook the building from within the basement level, and the building began to fold like a pack of cards.

The flames flared, creating a funeral pyre that lit up the sky. Sat inside the chopper, feeling sick and confused, red looked at the burning building.

"May you burn in hell Wesker..." she hissed, and then turned her attention to the pouch she'd yanked from Wesker. Inside it was a syringe with dark green liquid, and another with pale blue.

She let out a funny little choked noise, which one was it?

Leon looked at Rachel, seen her puzzling over the syringes.

"Which one is it?" she asked, laughing in disbelief, "which one is the cure?"

Leon couldn't say anything to help her, he didn't know either. This was like some sick joke, they had a cure so close, yet they didn't know which one it was.

"The green pill will cause nightmares, the blue will ease your sleep." Ada commented almost jokily, something like a smile on her face "figured it out?"

Red stared at her, and then nodded, a shake, relieved smile appearing on her face. She tried to hold the syringe, then realized her left arm wasn't responding properly, and her other hand was shaking too badly.

"Here, let me.." Leon took the syringe from her, and the cure for the painful virus was finally administered to the exhausted officer. He stirred slightly, but did not wake.

"SO where are you folks going?" Ada asked calmly from the pilot seat.

"Back to base, we gotta get him to the hospital..." Rachel murmured at last. And with one final look at the flaming building, the chopper turned round, and flew off into the night, leaving the wreckage behind.

* * *

As he lay bleeding on the cold ground, dimly hearing the building collapse around him, Wesker cursed the three that had brought his whole flies work down around his ears. The bitch in the red dress, the red-jacketed one, and of course, Leon...

--I'll kill you three somehow, don't think you've folded the Umbrella...---

* * *

Red was in a somewhat awkward position. While still sleeping off the virus, her friend/officer/co-worker had somehow subconsciously decided to rest on her shoulder while sleeping. And she didn't want to risk making him move, so she had to sit there, somewhat red-faced, while lance slept on unaware.

Leon was struggling not to laugh at reds face. It was the first time he'd seen her fidget that much...

He looked at Ada the same time she turned her head slightly to look at the pair in the back. She smiled, a familiar, rare smile, then turned back to the controls.

Checking the display, Ada spotted the landing pad red had described to her. It was deserted, which would make her getaway even easier.

As the landing gear touched the ground, lance finally woke up in a clear frame of mind.

And sat bolt upright as he realized how he'd fallen asleep, snoozing on his female co-workers shoulder. No wonder she looked fidgety.

HE was dimly aware of the American snickering beside him, but he ignored him. Where were they?

"Morning sleepyhead." red finally remarked "or should I say goodnight..."

He blinked, looking at her, she had a tired, but relieved smile on her face. He felt his face redden slightly, seeing her smiling.

"Looks like the cure was a success..."

All attention was drawn to Ada, who quickly leaned back and yanked the other syringe from where it had rolled form red's lap to the chopper floor. "See you guys around..." she said as she jumped out of the chopper and took off into the darkness...

"Ada, wait!" Leon called, but she was gone. Red sighed "thank you again, Ada..." she said softly, then, as she heard footsteps running over to the chopper pad, she slumped back in her seat and passed out.

* * *

She woke up sometime later, to the comforting surroundings of an infirmary. The sound of chirping birds drifted into her mind, as well as the sounds of two people talking.

"-you think the guy died?"

"Beats me, he got sliced by helicopter blades so-"

Here red decided to dozily interrupt.

"Rofflcopter!" she announced, then giggled.

As her vision cleared she seen the two turn to look at her. It was Leon and the Colonel. Lance looked much better now that the cure had purged all traces of the virus, leaving him with an immunity against it, and a lot of bad memories.

"Rofflcopter?" Lance asked, trying not to laugh, and just about succeeding.

"Helicopter" Leon offered as explanation as Rachel giggled again. Evidently the painkillers were addling her mind a bit.

Lance shook his head slightly, she was as mad as ever. He had been relieved to hear she'd be alright. After all, he owed her for everything, both her and the American...

Giving them an excuse to talk alone, Leon pulled the golf ball-bladder excuse and pretended to dash off to the loo.

Lance sighed, he didn't exactly know what to say to her, after all, thanks to Wesker she knew the whole story about his parents, one he'd never revealed to anyone. He still remembered the day he received the news, seen the reports of Raccoon City being blown to pieces by a missile.

His hands clenched tightly in his lap, it had been because of people like Wesker that his parents had been wiped out of existence...

In the midst of the fog of memories, someone tapped his hand. He snapped out of his daydream, coming face to face to face with red. She was sitting up in bed, one arm in a cast. As he blinked slowly at her, she leaned forward and poked him on the nose.

"Cheer up!" she announced with another grin "we made it, Wesker's virus is gone...and you're OK, that's the best part" she ended this long-winded message with another cheerful smile, "so stop being so depressing OK?."

He blinked at her, and then, for the first time in the whole time she'd known him, he smiled warmly. "Yeah, I guess so.."

Even if his real family had been slaughtered by Umbrella, the loony Rachel and that weird American were the next best thing to a real family...

"Heh" Rachel smiled and leaned forward to ruffle the blondes hair, but over balanced and started to fall off the bed.

He had to move quickly, grabbing hold of her and sitting her back on the bed. And found himself going red again. He quickly pretended to be sorting out the flowers by the bedside so she wouldn't see him. But he found the depressing fog of thoughts that normally plagued him were gone...

He glanced out the window, at the bright light streaming into the room. She was right, the nightmare was over, the past was behind them.

Rachel leaned back against her pillow, smiling. She gotten Mr. grumpy-pants to smile, and she mentally resolved to try make him laugh as her next goal in the "cheer-him-up" plan she'd had going for some time.

Outside the room, having just come back from making a phone call, Leon watched the together. They seemed to get on so well, and the grouchy officer seemed to have cheered up. Red had that effect on people he noticed, she could get into your head and not leave until she got a laugh outta you.

He pushed open the door, smiling at Rachel "guess whose coming to visit?"

Red blinked, then clapped her hands "Ashley?" she asked hopefully, then grinned as Leon nodded, she hadn't seen the presidents daughter since the last mission.

She sat up in her bed, surrounded by the people and things that mattered most to her, the world of nightmares they'd left so far removed from the present. She knew Umbrella wouldn't be gone just because they'd destroyed one lab, there were more to find, and hopefully with Leon and lances help, she would bring down another...


End file.
